I’ve been in lock-down for the past three months: finishing the first complete draft of Unremembered Lives, doing the first five editing passes through the manuscript, sending it out for comments, re-editing, fixing errors, filling in, filling out, “linearizing” chapters that looped around in time and tense. Etc. While that was going on, I didn’t … Read more…
A week ago, I got to the final scene of my work-in-progress. It is complete, which is to say, it’s got a coherent plot with a beginning, a middle, and an end. My elevator pitch for Unremembered Lives is “a Romeo and Juliet story set against the backdrop of a bitter 1913 copper strike in … Read more…
Last summer, I signed an option with PalmStar Productions for a screen adaptation of Doc and Epitaph. So much time had gone by with no news, I was starting to wonder if they’d dropped the project, but yesterday an announcement appeared in a number of outlets, so I am free to talk about it now. … Read more…
By now you’ve probably heard that astronomers have announced the existence of “Earth-mass world in orbit around Proxima Centauri.” As in any scientific discovery, there are a lot of caveats and careful hedging of the announcement, but this appears to be legit. And just in time for the 20th anniversary of The Sparrow! I’m getting … Read more…
JESUITS IN SPACE AND IN THE VATICAN by Mary Doria Russell was originally published in September-October 2014 issue of Health Progress, the journal of the Catholic Health Association of the United States. Old joke. A Franciscan, a Dominican and a Jesuit are having dinner one night. Suddenly the lights go out. The Franciscan says, … Read more…
The title of The Sparrow comes from Matthew 10:29. “Not even a sparrow can fall without your Father knowing it.” That text is often quoted to people in times of crisis. It’s meant to be comforting. God knows your troubles. God’s eye is on the sparrow. The problem is, the sparrow still falls. And that’s … Read more…
This guest blog by Duncan Field spotlights a high-class problem in a writing career: having a hit, right out of the box. Epitaph update: the manuscript is due at the end of the month. I’ve cut 20,000+ words since finishing a complete first draft. Still tightening prose and looking for ways to ease boluses of … Read more…
As I type this, I’m printing out the complete first draft of Epitaph. Getting all the way to the end of the story was an excuse for a low-key celebration on Friday evening: a margarita and dinner at Applebee’s, not the champagne and four-star restaurant you might have imagined. I felt a mild sense of … Read more…
Two Hollywood attempts to bring The Sparrow to the big screen have made me feel a certain kinship with Max Brooks. Both of us have written science fiction novels that were optioned for a Brad Pitt movie, so watching what’s happened to Mr. Brooks’ book World War Z has been interesting. The movie is getting … Read more…
Thanks, everybody, for helping me celebrate the AMC/Sparrow option! In answer to FAQs: I won’t be writing scripts. I won’t have input to scripts. I don’t expect to be consulted in any way on scripts, casting, or story arc. When you sign an option, it’s like renting a house out. If you think that a … Read more…